1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a fluid reservoir for an oral hygiene appliance having a floor valve in its floor which opens when the reservoir is placed on the oral hygiene appliance.
2. Description of Related Art
A fluid reservoir of the preceding type is, for example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,186. The fluid reservoir can be filled with water separately from the oral hygiene appliance and be transported while full to the oral hygiene appliance, and automatically opens a connection to the oral hygiene appliance when it is set on the oral hygiene appliance.
One often has the desire to use a special mouthwash instead of clear water in the water reservoir of an oral hygiene appliance or to add mouthwash to the water in the reservoir. However, as the fluid reservoir has a relatively large volume, this leads to undesired high costs if one uses a mouthwash or water to which mouthwash has been added instead of clear water in the oral hygiene appliance from the beginning. Therefore, one often changes the fluid contained in the fluid reservoir shortly before finishing use of the oral hygiene appliance, which is, of course, inconvenient.
The invention has as its basis the problem of designing a fluid reservoir of the type initially mentioned in such a way that one can switch between at least two fluids in the easiest possible way.
This task is solved according to the invention in that the fluid reservoir has two separate fluid chambers, each having a fluid outlet, leading to the floor valve, connected to a manually operable selector valve which alternately opens one or the other fluid outlet.
Through this design of the fluid reservoir, one can connect the oral hygiene appliance during use to one or the other fluid chamber alternately. It thereby becomes possible, for example, to spray with a mouthwash only near the end of the cleaning process without having to change the fluid in the fluid reservoir in order to do so. Thanks to the invention, one can fill the two fluid chambers with the two fluids even before using the oral hygiene appliance. Furthermore, through the separate configuration of two fluid chambers, one can ensure that the reservoir is filled with only the small amount of the relatively expensive mouthwash actually needed for use at the end of the cleaning process.
The selector valve is particularly easy to operate and always opens either one or the other fluid outlet if, according to an advantageous development of the invention, the selector valve is preloaded by a bistable catch spring in its respective switch positions.
The fluid reservoir has a particularly simple structural design if the floor valve is positioned in a valve chamber provided under the floor of the fluid reservoir and if the selector valve is realized as a manually rotatable valve disk adjacent to the floor of the fluid reservoir between a closing element of the floor valve and the fluid outlet, having a channel which can alternately be brought into overlap with one or the other fluid outlet.
The means for operating the valve disk can be very simply designed if the valve disk is provided with a coaxial gearing and an axially displaceable rack is provided for rotating the valve disk.
The desired snapping function of the selector valve can be easily achieved if the rack is preloaded by the catch spring in two end positions.
The handling of the fluid reservoir is particularly simple if a two-arm rocking lever, movable around a swivel pin, is provided for actuating the rack which engages at one end with the rack and which has a pushbutton pressing against each of its lever arms. This embodiment makes it possible to operate the pushbutton with the same hand which carries the fluid reservoir while it is being carried, and thereby to open the desired fluid chamber.
When the selector valve is switched, it remains in the respective end position until the dead center position has been overcome if the rack is movably connected with the rocking lever of the to such a degree that, during switching from one to the other position, the rack is only pulled along after the dead center of position of the catch spring has been overcome. Through this design, the specific switch position of the selector valve is at first completely maintained. Only after overcoming the dead center position does the switching process of the selector valve begin, so it occurs very quickly and the selector valve is only in an intermediate position for a short time.
The desired play between the rack and the rocking lever can be realized in a simple way if the catch spring presses against a pin which is movably guided in a prong of a lever arm of the rocking lever on one side and supported on the other side in a recess of the rack, and if the pin can be moved against one of the two end surfaces of the recess at a time to displace the rack.
The operation of the valve disk is also possible through one rocker switch instead of two pushbuttons, if, according to another development of the invention, a connecting rod for rotating the valve disk is linked to the valve disk which is connected at its other end to a lever arm of a rocker switch.
In such an embodiment, the desired snapping function can be attained with simple means if the catch spring is realized as a telescopic rod and engages on a support of the fluid reservoir and a sliding surface of the rocker switch.
The invention allows various embodiments. Several of these are depicted in the drawings and will be described in the following. These show: